The Natural Resources Defense Council today announced creation of its Community Fracking Defense Project in Ohio and four other states.

The initiative is designed to provide legal and policy assistance to towns and local communities seeking added control or protections from hydraulic fracturing or fracking in their communities. That could include pushing for added home-rule protections..

“For too long, communities around the country have had little defense against the oil and gas companies that sweep into their neighborhoods and start fracking without regard for the impacts on the people who live there,” said Kate Sinding, a senior attorney in NRDC’s New York office. “If a city or town decides it doesn’t want fracking, or wants to restrict it, their voice should be heard and respected.”

The new NRDC project will launch in five states: Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and North Carolina.

It will focus on protecting communities’ abilities to protect themselves against the risks of fracking within their borders.

It will expand what the NRDC has been doing in Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania. The efforts in Illinois and North Carolina will be new.

The project’s activities will vary from state to state, reflecting the significant difference in fracking activities and regulatory protections.

Some examples of project activities include:

-- Assisting

in drafting local laws and land use plans that control the extent of fracking within their borders and/or limit the harmful effects of fracking.

--Working to re-assert communities’ rights to protect themselves under state law.

-- Defending relevant zoning provisions and other local laws that are challenged in court.